Łódź – the city that textile built
First impressions of the venue of the upcoming ETN conference
from 03 – 05 November 2022

After busy months during the summer symposium Textile Kultur Haslach, Christina Leitner and Andreas Selzer finally took to traveling to the city of Łódź in the heart of Poland where they met up with conference partners, inspected locations and couldn’t stop being amazed. 

 When the saving offer came from Marta Kowalewska, ETN treasurer and chief curator of the famous International Triennial of Tapestry in Łódź, to host the 20th ETN conference from 03 – 05 November 2022 in Łódź after the tragic loss of our opportunities in St. Petersburg, we were very relieved. Of course, the management of the Central Museum of Textiles, host of the 17^th ITT, still had to agree, and other partners had yet to be found. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Aneta Dalbiak, director of this pearl of a textile museum, for her immediate and open-hearted support. The Central Museum of Textiles, official partner of ETN for this conference, presents itself in pristine condition. The freshly adapted four wing building complexes on the beautiful premises of the former Geyer textile factory, at the time one of the first of many textile mills in Łódź to follow, offers state of the art museum experience, both architecturally and in terms of didactics.

The permanent exhibition takes us via the large 'machine hall' with rare exhibits from 2 centuries into the unique history of the city of Łódź, which was just a small village with 800 inhabitants before the first textile factories were built. A very interesting fashion department, visualization of the living conditions of the workers and an open-air museum with workers' houses complete the picture in a wonderful way.

The wing which will be hosting the International Triennial of Tapestry was, of course, still empty. Can’t wait to see the 57 works during our ETN conference beginning of November, when all conference participants will be spending a full day at the Textile Museum with guided tours through all exhibitions. The focus will of course be on the exhibits of the ITT as well as the National Exhibition of Polish Tapestry which will be shown there at the same time.

https://cmwl.pl/public/ 

With the Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź we were lucky to find yet another very special venue partner for the conference lectures and network sessions. This institution with its extraordinarily broad and well-established Faculty of Textile Art and Fashion Design left a deep impression on us. Welcomed by the Chancellor of the University and by Professor Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska, head of the Studio of Decorative Textiles, we were guided through the faculty's classes, and it quickly became clear what paradisiacal conditions prevail here for textile students. Printing, paper studio and the weaving department with it’s impressive range of dobby and jacquard hand looms amongst others are not often seen in this quality. After the tour through the studios, one could get a feeling for the importance of textiles in the city of Łódź.

The large auditorium with over 400 seats and technical equipment that leaves nothing to be desired is located in a newly built wing. It is there where we will be enjoying our international lectures, some in presence and some via Zoom broadcast. For the technical support of our hybrid conference, we are happy to have found yet another vital partner in the Łódź University of Technology.
During our conference we will be spending two full days at the Academy of Art, including guided tours through the Faculty of Textile Art, lunchbreaks, and a little surprise event. We are honoured to be guests in this beautiful and professionally outstanding house.

https://int.asp.lodz.pl/academy

https://p.lodz.pl/en

Wherever you look in Lodz, you can see the brick buildings and large chimneys of a former textile factory. Some have decayed and been returned to nature for the time being. Others, however, have been renovated and adapted by investors and now shine in new splendor. There are apartments, shopping malls but also art centers and museums in these revitalized halls. On Sunday after the conference there will be the possibility to take a selected tour to the 'Priest Mills Art Centre', the Museum Sztuki’s ms2 building with its unique collection of classic modern art and a short tour through the the Łódź University of Technology.

 See you there! Christina and Andreas